Despite legislative setbacks, organized labor presses ahead

Publicly, Iowa’s union leaders and their supporters believe the four measures currently listed at the top of organized labor’s priority list – choice of doctor, prevailing wage, open-scope bargaining and Fair Share – are still very much alive.

But privately, several state legislators concede that recent difficulties trying to pass prevailing wage legislation in the House have hurt the chances of any other labor bills this session.

“Time will tell what we can get passed,” said Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City. “[The Senate] can only vote on what the House sends us. It’s unclear what other labor bills are going to move forward if the House can’t regroup and pass prevailing wage.”

The prevailing wage bill called for minimum pay and benefit standards for workers on certain public projects. It garnered 50 votes in the House, one shy of passage, despite the fact that Speaker Pat Murphy, D-Dubuque, kept the chamber in session for the entire weekend.

Bolkcom was confident that labor bills passed by the House would easily pass the Senate because of the much larger Democratic majority in that chamber.

“We’re being patient and hoping we’ll get a shot at passing something,” he said.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, D-Des Moines, said recently that those claiming victory in defeating the bill might be doing so prematurely.

“There’s a lot of session left,” he said on a recent taping of Iowa Public Television’s Iowa Press. “At this point last year we were struggling to find consensus on the smoke-free places bill, we brought up the model core curriculum bill, which failed, and we had to put a motion to reconsider on it, and it took three more weeks to find the 51st vote. This is part of the process.”

While Democrats have majorities in both chambers, the party’s coalition is much more fragile in the House. Several Democratic lawmakers from rural, traditionally conservative districts have been outspoken in their criticism of labor legislation in the past. One of those lawmakers, Rep. McKinley Bailey, D-Webster City, was expected to be the 51st vote on prevailing wage before a failed amendment to the bill caused him to change his mind.

Bailey has since drawn criticism both publicly and privately from members of his party. Some are quietly concerned that he could join Rep. Dawn Pettengill, R-Mount Auburn, who switched parties in 2007 after publicly battling with the House Democratic caucus over issues such as union fees and the cigarette tax increase.

Bailey told The Des Moines Register last week that House leadership had stripped him of some of his authority, a move some believed was punishment for his prevailing wage vote. Rep. Ray Zirkelbach, D-Monticello, told the newspaper his party had “trust issues” with Bailey.

Bailey did not respond to interview requests from the Iowa Independent.

Ken Sagar, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, said organized labor needs to do a better job educating the public in order to convince legislators.

“These bills are about working families,” he said. “They are about the middle class, which needs help right now.”

Sagar doesn’t believe the failure of prevailing wage will hurt the chances of other labor bills.

“We try to push ahead with all of our issues, and when we think we’ve got 51 votes, we push to get it to the floor,” he said. “We thought we had 51 on prevailing wage. We just need to keep pushing.”

“Fair Share” legislation, which would allow unions representing government workers to collect a fee from nonunion employees for certain services, and “choice of doctor” legislation, which allows employees who are injured on the job the right to choose their own doctor, were introduced in the House Wednesday.

Marcia Nichols, political and legislative director for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Iowa Council 61, said the Legislature has been active on several labor bills, with public sector Fair Share passing the Senate in 2007 and open scope bargaining passing both chambers last year. Every time one of labor’s priorities is debated, it allows for the opportunity to educate the public as to why the changes are important, Nichols said.

“I think they are doing the right thing by hearing these proposals, and we’re educating the public,” she said. “I don’t see any of them as being dead or defeated. I think all those bills are live rounds; it just takes time to get people to an understanding.”

Iowa hasn’t had a serious discussion of its labor laws in many years, Nichols said, so it isn’t surprising that Iowans at first blush are hesitant to make significant changes.

“So I think this is just the first step in the process that is going to benefit the middle class and working Iowans,” she said.

A bright spot for organized labor, observers say, was Gov. Chet Culver’s breaking his silence and throwing his support behind prevailing wage legislation. Culver’s veto of the collective bargaining bill last year caused some tension between the Democratic governor and labor unions. An Iowa Federation of Labor newsletter shortly after the veto said 2008 would go down in history as “the session when a Democratic governor turned his back on the unions that enthusiastically supported him and helped get him elected.”

Nichols said she wasn’t surprised at Culver’s support because she has always known the governor to be a “strong supporter of working men and women.”

“Last year there was a communication problem in terms of the subjects covered in the open scope bill,” Nichols said. “We continue to work with the governor to find something everyone can work with and can be satisfied with. Last year I thought this was a communication problem that could be fixed, and I think it has been fixed.”

As for the 2009 session, Bolkcom said the goal has to be educating the public and working to convince legislators that prevailing wage is “pro-family.” At a recent legislative forum, Bolkom said he was able to have a long discussion of prevailing wage with Rep. Larry Marek, D-Riverside, who was one of the five Democrats to vote against the measure.

“We’ve got a lot of educating to do here in Des Moines and in our districts,” Bolkom said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Regardless of the outcome of the 2009 session, Nichols said organized labor is not going away any time soon.

“We truly believe these proposals benefit the middle class,” she said. “Iowa currently ranks 42nd in wages. All these bills are about wages. So we have got to continue to march forward.”